What was once before you - an exciting, mysterious future - is now behind you. Lived; understood; disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience. Every single one. The specifics hardly matter. Everyone's everyone.

cwbyrvr wrote:It's a nice countertroll (though sadly the people she's countering aren't trolling) but I can't help but think it's just a further waste of time.

I think it is calling attention to how absurd and out of line the legislation that is being taken seriously is. Saying over and over that abortion and medical procedures are not something that should be controlled by the gov't wasn't working. Putting the shoe on the other foot might just work.

It is a far better thing to love than to be loved; to adore than be adored. -David Turrill, An Apology for Autumn

monk wrote:so what you're saying is that great girl wonder beat the pants off you?

I really like these countertroll bills that are popping up everywhere, but they haven't exactly worked anywhere else in changing legislators' minds. Is it a matter of time/once every state sees one of these bills, or are these bills just going to be lumped in with the rest of the normal activism going on out there as far as how much change they directly effect? The latter isn't necessarily a bad thing, since there's some darn good pro-choice/women's health activism going on to counter the general right-wing nutbaggery.

I wonder if anyone's responded specifically to her "celibacy is an option" point. I wonder if anyone's going to go down the road of "boys will be boys/men who have sex because duh, penises need to be stuck into things" which would be an awesome contrast to "In my day, women took aspirin for birth control; they held it between their knees." I just really wonder if someone would say blatantly, "Celibacy is the best option for women, but for men it isn't reasonable." I want to think no, that even if they believe it, it wouldn't fly as a verbal statement. In this political comment climate, who knows.

Eravial wrote:I just really wonder if someone would say blatantly, "Celibacy is the best option for women, but for men it isn't reasonable." I want to think no, that even if they believe it, it wouldn't fly as a verbal statement. In this political comment climate, who knows.

I doubt it would be said explicitly because it doesn't really need to be; Our culture implies that men are sex-obsessed and constantly prone to urges, while women are supposed to be the 'responsible' ones who need to be concerned because they can get preggers (because sperm is unnecessary for insemination, u guiz)

^ All the while gradually encroaching on contraception rights as well.

The religious right just want babies to be born, and they expect women to carry them. This whole issue goes back to "go forth and be fruitful", it's practically a commandment of God. There is no logical reason to deny women abortion and contraception rights, other than enforcing old school gender norms and religious ideas of reproduction. The whole thing about babies being murdered is a smoke screen that even many on the prolife side have be duped to believe. If it was really murder then why did the Church not outlaw abortion in the last 1000 years and most of its rule over Europe? No one gave a toss about abortion until women's suffrage came along. Most pro-life arguments have holes in them that make the murder aspect non-sensical... like those who don't allow abortion except in the case of rape or incest. So, it's not murder if it was done by rape?

This debate is Biblical, and the Supreme Court needs to step in already. A Federal Law needs to be made that legalizes abortion that is reinforced by SCOTUS. Roe v Wade only comments on privacy and patient confidentiality - i.e. it is nobody's business what a woman and her doctor decide in her best interest - but the pro-life are tenacious and find ways around this. The right to control one's body must be codified in an uncorruptible way. What men don't understand when they fight women on this, is that men subjugate themseves to potential government control of THEIR bodies as well. People have forgotten the long-gone Eugenics Era.

The artist's job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote to the emptiness of existence. -W.A.